Industrial products (e.g., cars, airplanes, hard disk drives, power plants and robots) are produced containing an increasing number of control loops and controllers. Control loops and their associated controllers are designed to eliminate the need for continuous operator attention. Cruise control in a car and a house thermostat are common examples of how control loops and associated controllers are used to automatically adjust some variable to hold the measurement (or process variable) at a pre-defined set point. Due to the flexibility of software, controllers for industrial products are increasingly realized in software rather than in hardware. To gain optimal dynamic behavior of these industrial products, a measurement and model-based development approach is applied. In this context, the term “model based” means that mathematical equations are built and used for various tasks including analysis, visualization and simulation in real-time and/or non-real-time applications.
Controllers based on these models are designed to improve the overall closed-loop system dynamics. In some instances, products are manufactured “even on purpose” with some dynamic deficiencies to reduce development and production costs. However, to overcome the deficiencies, controllers are used which may be developed in a more cost effective way.
Before these products are marketed, they are typically tested in test environments according to prescribed procedures and test conditions. To make sure that the test conditions are met as close as possible, further control loops may also be designed and realized in test automation systems.